OPEN FORUM: The Taliban are dead, long live the Taliban

In 2001, when the United States announced its war in Afghanistan, I heard someone say,”The Taliban are dead, long live the Taliban.” At the time I strongly disagreed with that statement. Instead I believed that the new government America would introduce in Afghanistan would replace the need the Afghan people felt to embrace the Taliban movement. Today, regretfully, I would agree with that statement.

In his speech Tuesday night, President Obama said America is not in Afghanistan to build a nation. What President Obama fails to see is that in a country where a viable nation is absent and the government is ripe with corruption, nation building is critical and may be the only option.

I remember sitting at a small Afghan restaurant in Fremont, listening to the radio, when the Taliban gained a stronghold in Afghanistan. The radio commentator said in Dari that the Taliban were there to introduce laws that would stop women from being raped, prevent theft and to restore the nation of Afghanistan. The promise of a newly restored nation resonated with the Afghan people — they even echoed as promising words to Afghans in America. The Afghan people, out of necessity, welcomed the Taliban with open arms.

Today, once again, there is a lack of proper governance in Afghanistan. I ask for no more troops and, instead, efforts to rebuild the Afghan nation.

I wish that President Obama would invest more in nation building and decentralize the Afghan government by allowing rudimentary governments in villages to run schools, police units and courts; Afghanistan would no longer be separated into ethnic fractions and the local head villagers and district leaders, who were appointed by the people, could be held accountable. The task could be as simple as gathering the elders in each province and asking them to identify people who they trust to carry guns, regulate laws, and report to a higher governing power.

If I had a moment with President Obama, I would say, let’s not forget why the Taliban movement was brought about.